Melbourne #4, Victoria, Australia

1st February – 15th February 2018

1^st February

After having a late night to see the moon, I was then up at 7.30 to head to work. I was on a long day, so getting up to see the moon may not have been the most sensible thing to do, but it was worth it. From being at the night market and then the excitement of seeing the moon, I forgot to get myself prepared for work. When I got up, Joe got up with me and made me my lunch – he’s a star!

I set off just after 8, and once I had left, Joe got back into bed to watch the United match. I don’t know why he bothers though because whenever he makes the effort to watch them, they lose. I got to work in the quickest time yet, giving me loads of time to get changed and open up.

Joe spent the rest of the morning chilling out and checking up on the football, before getting ready to come and meet me when I finished work. While he was getting ready, he checked the polaroid to see if it had enough film in it. When he turned it on, the whole thing froze and wouldn’t do anything. He panicked because he thought he had broken it but he brought it with him anyway to see if I could fix it.

When he arrived at Highpoint, he had a few things to sort, including the polaroid, so he did that while I finished my shift. Luckily, the polaroid just needed new batteries, but they were so expensive and I was very reluctant to pay for them because last time the batteries ran out, it happened slowly rather than suddenly. Once the camera situation was sorted, we rode home at around 6.30.

When we got home, dinner was ready. Mo had made homemade chicken soup, which was so good! After dinner we played more Yahtzee – obviously – before chilling out in front of the TV with some marmalade on toast.

 

2^nd February

Another early start was in order, so that I could get to work on time. I really appreciate the extra hours that I’ve had while Olga is off, so I don’t mind getting up early. Joe got up with me again and made my lunch and ironed my work clothes – he’s too good to me.

I left for work just after 8 again and set another record time for the journey. When I got to work, I did the usual morning routine, before opening up the store. While I was at work, Joe occupied himself by going on a bike ride in the local area.

In work when it’s quiet, I often stare out of the store at the fro-yo stand and dream about eating frozen yogurt – it’s weird I know, but I love it! I’m always checking what flavours are available and I watch what other customers are buying. Whilst I was staring today, I heard a customer ask the worker about the Groupon voucher he had. As soon as I heard this, I had to check it out and found that there are vouchers online where you can get $10 worth of fro-yo, for $5! I was soon onto this and arranged a date on Saturday with Joe.

I finished work at 5, and rode home as soon as I was changed. I got home about 5.30 and when I did, I said a quick hello to Joe, before he set off for his shift. After dinner, I chilled out for the evening, after getting myself organised for work, the next day.

When Joe had finished his shift, he got home about 10.45 and we went straight up to bed. Although I made sure we had our fro-yo vouchers before we went to sleep so that we didn’t miss out!

 

3^rd February

I was up early again, for another shift at work. As I got myself organised the night before, Joe didn’t have to get up with me this time. I had a chat with home, on grandma’s weekly call, while I was getting ready, and set off for work just before 8.15.

Joe spent the morning chilling out, while I opened up the shop and got ready for a day of work. I was excited to finish work, more so today, as it was our fro-yo date and I couldn’t wait!

Joe set off to Highpoint at about 2, so that he could do some shopping before I finished work at 3. After my red velvet flavoured ice cream at the market, and Mo not knowing what red velvet cake was, I was inspired to make one for Sunday dinner. However, as Mo can’t have red food colouring, and I didn’t have time to make my own natural red food colouring, it was going to just be a velvet cake, minus the red.

When I finished working, at 3, our first stop was the fro-yo stand, for our date. Annoyingly, as soon as we got there, the chocolate flavour ran out and I didn’t like any of the others, so we decided to do other bits of shopping first. For the cake, I needed either a deep tin, or two shallower tins. Mo had one shallow tin, which Joe measured before he came out, and we managed to find one that was almost the same size, for only $3, so that was ideal.

After we had bought all the bits that we needed for the cake, we went back to the fro-yo place but the chocolate pump still wasn’t working, so the date was off. We didn’t want to waste our vouchers when we weren’t keen on the flavours, so instead we rode home.

When we got home, I got started on the cake pretty much straight away. I got the cake mix made and in the oven, before I started on the icing. Whilst I was mixing the icing ingredients together, I didn’t know my own strength and snapped the wooden spoon in half. Joe found this hilarious and was almost rolling around the floor laughing! He didn’t find it so funny when he had to ride up to Coles to buy a new one because I needed one.

While he was gone, I managed to improvise and finish the icing without the spoon, but we needed to replace it anyway, so it wasn’t a wasted trip.

When he got back, he got himself showered and changed for work. We had dinner, which was veggie soup and sausage rolls, before Joe left for his shift.

After Joe had gone to work, I chilled out for a bit, before going to bed. I felt so tired and had work again the next day, so I couldn’t even stay awake until he got in. When he got in at 11, he came straight up and went to bed too.

 

4^th February

The next morning, I got an extra hour in bed, as the shop doesn’t open until 10 on Sundays. We got up and had some breakfast together, before I got ready for work and set off. I left just after 9, leaving Joe at home to catch up on the football updates.

Work was slow, considering it was the weekend. I had lots of returns in the morning (one of which I shouldn’t have returned, oops!) and then I got a call from Ale, who works at another store to say she was in trouble for me working so much. I shouldn’t have technically been working the Sunday shift, but the girls from the store in the city had been covering (something which was arranged before I got the job). As they had to drive over an hour to Highpoint and had been working long shifts in their own stores too, they asked if I would cover. It doesn’t bother me working a lot, and the money on a Sunday is double, so I said I would. I knew when I agreed to it that I wouldn’t have a day off for eight days, which didn’t bother me, but Robyn (the area manager) wasn’t happy about it, although she didn’t blame me at all.

While I was working, I noticed the chocolate pump was back on the fro-yo stand. It was just typical that we couldn’t go now because of work.

I finished work at 5 and managed to get off almost on time. I rode home to a house full of the usual Sunday guests – everyone besides Cait and Danny. As I got in, Joe was on his way out, for his shift – he had eaten dinner early so that he didn’t miss out.

Not long after everyone had arrived, we sat down for dinner. After we had eaten, we had two cakes to work our way through – the one that I had made and one that Rose had made (a pear pastry).

Just as everyone was finishing off dessert, Danny arrived – he had been to a footy match with his friends. There was a lot of washing and drying to do, so everyone pitched in, while the boys played cricket in the garage.

Once everyone had left, we had the rest of the evening to chill out. Joe was still at work, but we put a film on for the evening. We watched ‘The Debt’ which was about some secret agents who had a mission to find a doctor from the war, who tortured patients. Although I may have had a 5 minute nap at the beginning (I had worked a lot), it was a good film, even though there was lots of jumping back and forward in time.

Joe arrived home at about 10.40, so after a quick catch up, we went up to bed, as I had to be in work again the next day.

 

5^th February

It was another 7.30 get up for me, as I had to leave just after 8 for my shift at work. I was originally on a 9-2, but I had a phone call from Robyn asking me to stay until 5.30 to help set up for stocktake later in the week. Obviously I said yes because it’s good money and we didn’t have anything planned.

After I had gone to work, Joe had a chilled morning at home. He did some blog writing for me – as I had got so far behind with working all the time and not having much to write about! He also watched the Superbowl, which just distracted him from the blogs.

As I was only originally working until 2, I didn’t take any lunch with me, even though I had a sneaky suspicion that I would be asked to stay later. Joe, being the star that he is, made me some lunch and rode up to Highpoint with it. He sat with me while I ate my lunch, and then sorted some banking out, before riding home for his own lunch – he didn’t think to bring himself something to eat with me!

After school had finished, Danny popped round for a brief visit and Mo picked Jeannie up from school, and brought her back too. Apparently, she gave everyone a violin demonstration, which Joe videoed for me, as I was still working.

Just before I finished, I got my first huge sale since working there. I didn’t really have to do much for it, as the customer just wanted new clothes and as much as I tried to help and suggested she tried things on, she ‘couldn’t be bothered’ and just kept throwing clothes at her partner who kept bringing them over to me, to put through the till. It came to $1750 altogether, which I will apparently get a bonus for, in store credit.

Once my shift had finished, I got changed and rode home. I was home for just after 6. When I got in, I ate my dinner, and we chilled out for the rest of the evening, playing Yahtzee, again!!

 

6^th February

The next morning I was up and ready for another shift. I set off to work about 8.15 and got into the shop early, as I wanted to see what I would be able to buy with my store credit, before I started. I got to Highpoint, opened up the store and took some clothes in to the fitting room with me to try on. Once I had finished trailing a few things, I decided that I best get changed in to my work clothes and start to do some work.

Just before 11, I had another $1000 sale, this one I had to work a little bit harder for but I don’t mind, especially when it means I get some store credit. I don’t know how many clothes I’ll be able to buy with all of my store credit but I’m looking forward to doing the shopping. Whilst I was at work, Joe spent the morning at home to sort out some of my resources which I needed for tutoring the next evening.

Me and Joe had agreed to meet at the frozen yoghurt stand about 1.30 for a treat as it was “no weigh day”, so a small cup was $8 no matter the weight, meaning we, of course, filled the cup right up to the top. I don’t want to think about how much it would have cost us on a normal day. Once we had finished the yoghurt and had a chat about our days. I went back in to work and Joe went back home to finish off with getting my tutoring resources sorted.

Once Joe had arrived back home and finished off with the resources, he went on a walk to Officeworks to print them off.

Once 5.30 came around, I had not quite finished all of my jobs and so I had to stay in work for a little bit longer to finish off, I ended up leaving about 5.50. Mo had made homemade burgers for tea, which are my favourites.

After we had all eaten, Me and Joe sat down and played some Yahtzee until Morse came on. When it was time, we sat down and began to watch Morse but it wasn’t too long before Mo, Mark and Joe had all nodded off. We made it until about 10.30 before we both head up to bed as we had both had long days.

 

7^th February

The next morning I wanted to finish off my tutoring resources early on so that I could try to chill out for the rest of the morning, so I got up early, even though it was my only day off, of the week. Once Joe had woken up and come downstairs, we both sat and played Yahtzee before having lunch. We tried to think of something we could do during the day as I didn’t want to just sit around and wait until I had to go to tutoring.

We decided that we would ride to Highpoint as we needed to go to Officeworks, which was over the road, and it is also half the way to the student’s house. This saved me from having to do a 40 minute bike ride later on in the 35 degree heat. After I had printed out my final resources, we realised that we did not have any scissors and so we headed in to Highpoint to try to find a pair.

As we were in Daiso, where everything is $2.80, we bought two pairs of scissors. One pair was to cut my resources and the other pair was a pair which helps to thin out Joe’s hair – he trusts me way too much!

We sat in Highpoint and Joe cut out my resources whilst we had a think of what we could buy for Jeannie for her birthday. After all resources were sorted, we walked around Highpoint and in to a few different toy shops, weighing up our options. After looking around for about 20 minutes, we decided to buy “World Domino” but I’m not sure if Joe wanted to buy it for Jeannie or himself.

At about 4.15, I set off on my extra 20 minute bike ride to Niddrie for my tutoring. I arrived at the given address at about 4.55, as the ride to the house was extremely hilly – it’s a good job I gave myself plenty of time. As I walked up to the house, something didn’t quite look right, as I could see lots of boys toys, but not many girls things. I knocked on anyway and a gentleman answered. When I said I was there for tutoring, he seemed to know nothing about. I started to wonder if I had come to the right address or if there was another street with the same name in Niddrie. I got the address up on my phone and showed the man and he confirmed it was the right one, so all was good, kind of.

I tried to call the agency and the mother to try to find out where they were but there was no answer from anyone. I eventually got through to the mum and found the house; it was 51, not 61. Connie said that the address was given over the phone to the agency and so they have obviously just got it wrong on their end. Luckily I was in the right area though.

When I had found the house, the two childen, who I was there to tutor, came running out to greet me and said “wow, you look hot”. Having ridden for about 40 minutes in 35 degree heat, I wasn’t surprised to hear this. The eldest one, ran straight back inside and brought me out a glass of water. I could already tell they were lovely children.

After the tutoring had finished, they were both sad to see me going. It made me remember how much I missed tutoring, as I had really enjoyed it. It helped that both children were so eager and the family was lovely.

Unfortunately, as it would take me about an hour to ride there, it just wasn’t going to be worth it for me, as I was so hot and tired when I got there, and I didn’t feel very professional. I am glad that I gave it a chance though and as we all got along so well, we are going to try and find a library in the middle where we can meet, at a convenient time.

I set off on my long bike ride back home and eventually got back about 7, where I wasted no time in tucking in to the spaghetti Bolognese that Mo had made. Once me and Joe had eaten our tea, we sat with Yahtzee and had another chilled night.

I was ready for an early night after my long day and the extra long bike ride that I had done and so, about 10.30, we went to bed.

 

8^th February

We both woke up early the next morning, me to get ready for work, and Joe to help me get ready as he made my dinner for me whilst I had some breakfast. Once I was ready, I set off to work just after 8 and Joe got back in to bed to have a little bit of extra sleep.

Once Joe woke back up again, just after 9 he had a chilled out morning and got his stuff ironed for his shift, later on.

At around 1, Joe came to Highpoint to meet me and we were going to have some dinner together but, unfortunately, the shop was really busy and so I didn’t get to go on my break until just after 2. Joe had waited for me and swapped my “K” water bottle as the letter was starting to wear out.

When I was eventually on my lunch break, we sat down and ate our lunch together. After lunch, I went back into work and Joe rode back home to get himself ready.

I finished work just after 5 and got back home just after 5.30, just in time to see Joe for 5 minutes before he had to set off. That 5 minutes in between our different shifts is all we seem to see of each other during the days at the moment.

Once Joe had set off, me, Mo and Mark drove round to John’s for a BBQ, for a change, as it usually them who come to Mo’s for Thursday dinner. When we got to John’s it was just John, Paddy and Danny who were there, as Cait and Rosie were out. It was a nice change to have BBQ on a Thursday and the food was so nice. John does a good BBQ.

While we were there, John nipped out to collect Rose from her first footy training, so we waited for them to get back. We left at about 7.15ish, and it didn’t take us long to get home.

When we got back, I began to work on some things for back at home. I found it hard to concentrate but I just took it a bit at a time. I was working on it for most of the night up until Joe arrived home from work around 10.15.

As he had missed out on the BBQ, he was looking forward to getting a free pizza from work once he had finished but for some reason everyone was given a tuna salad instead – he wasn’t too impressed by this. Once Joe had finished his tea and I had finished my work, we made our way to bed as we were both very tired.

 

9^th February

The next morning we both woke up around 7.40 and Joe helped me to get my stuff ready for work – again! Just after 8, I set off. At about 8.20, I realised that I had forgotten something for work and I knew I didn’t have time to go back and get it so I called Joe and luckily he said he would also ride to Highpoint to meet me and drop it off – he’s a good’en!

As we would be seeing Jeannie at Sunday dinner, and we had made plans for Saturday, when Joe got back home from Highpoint, he made a start on wrapping the presents that we had got her.

I nearly had another big sale at work and had put in quite a bit of effort with the woman to take it over $600 but once she got to the till, she didn’t have any money with her. She did however, say she would be back and so I put the bags behind the desk and waited for her. A couple of hours went by and there was no sign of the woman and so I gave her a call on the number that she had left. She said that unfortunately she would not be able to come back today and she would be back tomorrow and so, if she does come back, I wouldn’t get the voucher from the sale. Thankfully I’ve had a couple recently so I won’t be short on store credit.

Once Joe had wrapped Jeannie’s presents and stripped the bed there was another chilled day ahead with some writing to be done as we had started to get a little bit behind.

Luckily for me, work was really busy, so it went quickly. I was also offered first choice on hours of Easter and as these are bank holidays, I would be in for a lot of money, if we chose to stay until then and work. I would need to think about it as it would mean staying in Melbourne a little bit longer than we had originally planned but the money would help us, even with just those three days of work.

I got back home at about 5.30 and we all sat down for tea and played Yahtzee before Joe had to set off to work.

I had a chilled night ahead and just finished off some bits of work, before sending it back home for it to be proof read. Joe got back home around 11 and shortly after, we both head to bed.

 

10^th February

The next day we both had a full day off work. We had been looking forward to this all week and so we had a little bit of a lie in which was nice. We got up around 9, as we were going out for brunch in Richmond with Mary, Emma and Nic. We had done a bit of research in to the place we were going and decided we weren’t going to need any breakfast before we left.

Richmond wasn’t far from Flinders Street so, at about 9.40, we got on our bikes and rode up to Yarraville station, ready to get the 9.57 train to Flinders. We changed trains at Flinders Street and only had one stop to go, before we were in Richmond.

When we got off the train, Emma and Mary were there to pick us up. We said our hellos to Mary and Emma, before driving to the restaurant where we were meeting Nic. Once we arrived at Three One 2 One, the sign on the door said that they did not open until 11, although their website said they opened at 10. Luckily it was only about a 10 minute wait and so we all had a little walk up and down Bridge Road and waited patiently for it to open.

We went in to the restaurant a couple of minutes after 11 and sat down to look at the menu. Me and Joe decided that we were going to share some loaded fries and get a milkshake each. Mary was the only sensible one out of us all, as she only ordered some blueberry pancakes.

When our milkshakes arrived, they were huge. They were stacked full of sweets and chocolates and they all looked unbelievable.

After about 5 minutes of photo taking, and us all debating the best way to try to tackle our milkshakes, we got stuck in. They were so big and unmanageable. We were all very full afterwards, so we decided that we should go for a little walk to try and make ourselves feel a little bit better. We walked in and out of a few different shops up the street, before Emma gave a lift back to Richmond station.

Once we got back to Yarraville we decided we would have a look in the shops for a new game as we felt we were starting to wear out Yahtzee. We went in to Bill’s Bargains and they had a copy of Monopoly for $9 and we thought it was too good of an opportunity to miss. We rode back home, with a few stops to try to fit the box into Joe’s bag, and got the game out.

We opened it up and we could already tell that it was going to be a bit of a cheap version as all of the ‘Chance’ and ‘Community chest’ cards were attached to each other, so we had to tear along their perforated edges to separate them. We also noticed that it looked to be a French version of the game as there were some French places to visit. This didn’t really bother us, as it was still the same concept.

We set all of the cards out and sorted out the money and started to play. After one roll, I landed on ‘Community Chest’ and the card told me to go to Christ the Redeemer. I don’t have to have been on my travels to know that that is not in France but we looked for it on the board anyway, just in case there was something similar on the board. After about 5 minutes of looking and checking all of the squares, we looked through the rest of the cards and realised that some of them were not on the board or there were two of the same property cards and even a spelling mistake. We knew it would be a cheap version but we didn’t expect there to be wrong things. As we had paid $9 for the game and it wasn’t right, Joe got on his bike and rode back up to Yarraville, before the man who sold it would forget who he was, as we had not been given a receipt for it.

Joe made it back with his refund and we decided that we should just stick to the trusty game of Yahtzee. After a few more games, Joe wanted to see if he could find the board for Mo’s monopoly game and if not, he was going to make a board in some of the time that he was off from work.

After a few minutes of looking under the bed in the spare room, Joe found the board and was very excited to be playing a new game. We knew that Monopoly can usually take quite a few hours to play so we set it up, just before tea so that we would plenty of time to finish a game.

About an hour later, I started to realise that Joe wasn’t as good at this game as he said he was – I think he had been allowed to win during his childhood, something I was never given the privilege of. He had already had to mortgage off a couple of properties and didn’t have many full sets, so couldn’t buy any properties. Luckily for him, tea was ready and so we had a little break. Once we had finished tea, I had a call from back home to chat about my work that I had sent them. Joe was happy to call the game a draw but once I was finished on the phone, I was ready to finish the game off.

It didn’t take long before I won the game and Joe was out of money. I think he will be happy to stick to Yahtzee from now on.

We switched back to Yahtzee for a little while before we all sat down to watch the film ‘The Nightcrawler’. It was quite a good film about a person who wants to become a news cameraman but it was quite scary to see the stuff that they filmed and to realise that real cameramen will probably behave in the same way. It was worrying because he was all about getting the best possible stories on camera, rather than helping the people.

Once the film had finished, it was gone 11.30 and so we went to bed after our long day of eating and playing games.

 

11^th February

Sunday morning came and we had a big lie in and a lazy morning. We ended up heading downstairs at about 10am; we had our breakfast and played some Yahtzee before Joe had to start to get ready for work at 12.

Joe set off about 11.30 and I began to proof read all of the blog writing he had been doing. This proved to be a much more difficult task than I had first imagined. It took me around 2 hours to read, and change, what Joe had already written but I was thankful that he had at least tried. It is still easier to read and change them than to write it all myself in the first place, especially as I had got so far behind.

After I had finished with Joe’s parts of the blog, I began to catch up on the remaining days that we had left and I managed to do about four days’ worth of blog before I had to start to get myself ready for Sunday dinner.

John, Rosie, Paddy and Danny all came round for Sunday dinner this week and they arrived at about 5. Joe arrived shortly after but unfortunately he did not bring back any pizza with him from work, which I was very disappointed about.

As it was Jeannie’s birthday coming up on Tuesday, she had had a sleepover on Saturday night with a couple of friends and so, when Mick, Shell and Jeannie arrived at about 5.30, she was very tired. That didn’t stop her from opening the presents which people had got her though and she was very excited to see all of the new toys which she had got.

Dinner was ready about 6 and everyone sat around the table to eat. After eating, the children, left the table to go and play with some of Jeannie’s new games and the adults helped to clear the table and wash all the dishes. Once everything was sorted, we all had a sit down and a chill out just to let all of the food settle down. After a little food break, it was time for birthday cake, so we all sang to Jeannie and tucked into dessert.

At about 7.30, everybody left as all of the children are now back in the school routine and all wanting early nights. Jeannie especially as she was very quiet all night. I think the sleepover must have worn her out.

Once everybody had left, me and Joe played a little bit more Yahtzee before moving to the couch and having a little bit of time to chill out. It wasn’t long before we were both feeling very tired and so, we head to bed at about 10.30.

 

12^th February

The next morning we had a nice lie in and didn’t head downstairs for breakfast until about 9.15. After we had both had our breakfast, I had a quick shower and got myself ready for work. Even though I wasn’t in work until 12, I wanted to head to Highpoint early as there were a couple of jobs that I wanted to do before I started.

As Joe had been paid cash in hand from work for the last two weeks, I was going to put his money in to the bank, along with the leftover money that I got from my birthday. Its much easier to spend money when it is cash as we don’t really use our Australian bank cards to buy anything.

Also, the new water bottle which Joe had got me was starting to fade again so I wanted to take that back and get a new one, along with a new receipt to show that I’ve swapped it twice already. I did this successfully but the woman behind the till said that it is quite common for it to happen with the rose gold colour, so I decided I will give it one more go before I will have to get a different colour.

The next and final thing on my list before work, was to look for a headstrap for the GoPro, mainly so that I could use it when we go surfing in Torquay when Joe’s mum and dad arrive. During my research the night before I had seen that they do them in Target so that was my first stop. However, when I got there they did not have any in stock and I realised that I had looked on the American website and not the Australian one. I went to JB Hi-Fi as I had seen one of them when we were looking for the Polaroid batteries. When I got there, the cheapest ones were $35 and I felt we could find them cheaper but I just didn’t have time, as I head to head to work.

Whilst I was sorting out this and heading to work, Joe stayed at home and caught up on some more of the blogs and did some washing. A productive morning for us both.

I was only on an afternoon shift, which was a nice change. Not long after my shift started, I had a customer in, who I had spoke to on the previous week. She was looking for some new clothes, so I helped her out and had a chat with her and she ended up spending over $1000 – another successful sale for me!

Back at home, Mo picked Jeannie up from school and took her back for tea. I missed another violin recital but again, luckily, Joe had taken another video.

At about 5.45, Mo took Jeannie back home so I just missed them as I didn’t arrive back home until just after 6. When I got back, me and Joe sat down and had our tea before I did some research on where we could get the GoPro headstrap from, whilst playing Yahtzee, of course.

I found it was so cheap on Amazon, but I had left it too late to order it for the weekend, so I would have to find it in a shop. According to Google, we could either get one from the Apple store or from Officeworks, both of which where near to Highpoint, so I planned to head to work a little bit earlier the next day too and try to get it sorted.

At about 8.30, we sat down on the couches with Mo and Mark and watched a film, The Sixth Sense. After this had finished, about 10.45, we went up to bed.

 

13^th February

The next morning I was awake about 8.30 and Joe got up shortly after. We both went downstairs and had our breakfast before I got myself ready to go to Highpoint as I had a few more jobs that needed doing. I set off at about 9.30 and left Joe doing the blogs.

At about 10.45 I had a call from a number that I did not recognise and they left a message which wasn’t very clear. At first, I couldn’t even tell if the message was for me or Joe. I eventually managed to hear it was for Joe and gave him the number to ring. I told him to give them a call and let me know what they said.

After about twenty minutes, I still hadn’t heard back from Joe which was weird, as he was just on his phone. When I asked him what he was doing and why he hadn’t been looking at his phone, which again I didn’t believe. The penny then dropped, that it had been twenty minutes and that’s about the length of time it take to get to Highpoint, and that’s exactly what he had been doing – he had come to surprise me. Once we had met up, we got some Fro-yo, before I had to go in to work.

After we had eaten our yoghurt, Joe went to Apple and to Officeworks to compare the prices of the GoPro headstraps and finally bought it from Apple as it was cheaper there, by five whole cents!

After buying the headstrap, he rode back to Yarraville and to Cait’s shop. The bracelet that he had bought me for Christmas had snapped when I caught it in the door, the day before. He dropped it off with Tommy, Cait’s brother, and finally made his way back home, getting back about 1.30

When the shop was quiet in the afternoon, I listened back to the voicemail that I had been left earlier in the day (as the number wasn’t working for Joe) and realised that I had written the number down wrong. He tried the new number and it worked. It turns out it was a recruitment agency who just wanted to go through some things on his CV and they would get in contact with any jobs that he might like. Any extra money is good so we shall have to wait and see what comes of that, but it’s getting a bit late now to find a new job.

I finished work at 5.30 and had the shop locked up in record time! I was changed and ready for my cycle home too, which meant that I was home just before 6 – another record!

When I got home, I had some dinner before settling down for the night. More Yahtzee was played before we watched some TV and went up to bed. A standard night for us at the moment.

 

14^th February

We were both up early the next morning and as I got myself ready for work, Joe began to make my dinner as I was working 9-5.30. Once I got myself ready, I left the house just after 8am. Joe managed to stop himself from getting back in to bed and instead, stayed up to watch the last bit of the football that was on – apparently its Champions League week.

Today I was supposed to be covering the shop all day, with Robyn covering my lunch break. It got to almost lunchtime and no one had showed up to cover me. I had emailed Robyn to find out what was happening but I heard nothing back. I was so hungry and couldn’t wait any longer for my lunch, so decided to eat it on the shop floor. Just as I was about to take a big bite of my sandwich, Robyn walked in – typical.

Joe spent the morning at home, before leaving for work at about 12.40 to do his 1-9 shift.

Usually, when I am closing the shop on my own, I start to close down at about 5.15 so that I can leave as soon as possible, but I don’t like doing that when Robyn as in and she’s the area manager – I don’t think that would look great. Instead I left it a little bit later than usual and I got back home at about 6.15, after a horrifically windy ride home!

After I had eaten my tea, I got to baking, as I had decided to make cookies for Valentine’s Day. I made a bigger, heart-shaped one for Joe and then normal sized ones for everyone else.

Once the cookies were done, me, Mo and Mark sat down for a few rounds of Yahtzee, which surprisingly wasn’t my idea! We played a few games of Yahtzee before retiring to the sofa to watch TV.

Joe finished his shift at 9 and had ordered a pizza for us, for our Valentine’s date. He arrived home at about 9.20 and after getting changed and applying the insect repellent, we sat outside for our date. We had pizza from Joe’s work, the cookie that I had made and a glass of wine each – it was a perfect little date.

After our little date in the back yard, we went up to bed.

 

15^th February

We had a lazy morning the next day and woke up about 9, heading down for some breakfast at 9.15. I spent most of my morning proof reading what Joe had written in the blog – again it took me longer than expected. Whilst I was proof reading, Joe was making my dinner, so I guess it has its ups and downs.

After I had finished, I started to get myself ready for work and eventually set off just after 11am. As I was working 12-9, I had had to pack two lots of sandwiches and it would be the first time that I would be riding home in the dark.

Once I had left for work, Joe put the laptop back on charge and made a start on packing up some of the stuff that we would need, for our weekend trip on the Great Ocean Road with his mum and dad. This was followed by finally catching fully up to date on the blog – I had decided that I was going to start a fresh one for the Great Ocean Road trip (maybe it would be a little more interesting too).

About 1pm, Joe had a facetime call with his mum and dad in Singapore and they were all very excited to finally be saying ‘see you tomorrow’ at the end of the call. It seems to have come around very quickly.

Later on that afternoon, about 5pm, I met Joe at the frozen yoghurt stand (again) in Highpoint, as we still had a Groupon voucher that we could use. Joe also needed to change the lid for his bottle – again. Once we had got our frozen yoghurt pot ready, we went to the till to pay but there was a problem with the voucher for some reason. As we weren’t able to use the code, we had to pay for the yoghurt, not what we had hoped for.

After we had eaten our fro-yo, we had a little chat and a catch up of our afternoons before I had to head back in to work.

Joe rode home when I went back to work and got back at about 6.15. He sat down to have his tea before finishing off the blog. The rest of my work shift went quite slowly, as there weren’t many customers. I locked up at work and got myself changed back, before riding back home in the dark.

I got back home at about 9.30. I chilled out for the evening, before heading up to bed.

The start of February was pretty much more of the same. Our time in Melbourne has mostly been to save up and earn as much money for the rest of our travels, so we’re happy with what we’re doing. We have some very exciting weekends coming up though and can’t wait to explore more of the surrounding areas of Melbourne and catch up with some familiar faces!

To travel is to live, Katie (co-written by Joe) x